Interac® teams up with three Canadian startups to bring innovative money transfer experiences to market

TORONTO, May 3, 2017 /CNW/ - Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation (Interac) are gearing up to work with three Canadian startups to help them enable easier and faster payment experiences for their customers. The startups – OpenSports, Dibbzz and Navi – were selected following a Collision Day challenge at Communitech last week in which they made pitches for integrating with the new Interac e-Transfer® 3rd party API (application programming interface) to streamline requesting and receiving money.

"All teams presented innovative ideas for using the Interac e-Transfer platform to offer faster payment options," said Debbie Gamble, VP Product and Platform Development, Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation. "We are thrilled to provide the winners with an initial cash injection to help develop their prototypes and, perhaps more importantly, will work closely with them over the next year to help bring their solutions to market."

OpenSports, an app which connects sports organizers and players with recreational sport opportunities, took first place (and $25,000) for its pitch to integrate with the API and enable organizers to request and receive money from participants for space rentals/fees. Dibbzz, a seat upgrade service for Performing Arts Centres, took second place (and $15,000) for its proposal to integrate the API with their intuitive texting platform to offer immediate move-up solutions to existing ticket holders. Navi, an artificial intelligence powered platform for businesses to connect with their vendors, took third place (and $10,000) for their presentation on integrating with the API to allow businesses to instantly request and receive payments and manage everything in a data driven dashboard.

The Interac open API initiative is an important step to encouraging continued innovation in the payments industry by allowing the developer community to build on the trusted Interac e-Transfer platform in order to streamline the digital exchange of money.

"Canadians are using Interac e-Transfer more than ever before, with nearly 50 million transactions in the first three months of this year," said Gamble. "We're always looking for ways to make online money movement even easier, which includes partnering with the community to make sure we continue to meet the needs and expectations of Canadians."

In total, eight startups took part in the challenge.

"It is always exciting to bring together national brands with startups to explore strategic collaborations and partnerships," said Steve Currie, VP, Strategy at Communitech. "All eight startups had inspiring ideas, and we are pleased that the three winning teams will get a chance to work alongside Interac for up to a year to turn their ideas into something practical that can be tested and evaluated."

"It's a great honour to win the Collision Day challenge," said James Gibbons, CEO, OpenSports. "We are very excited for the opportunity to partner with Interac over the next 12 months and bring their strength of payment processing to sport players, facilities and organizers across Canada."

About theInterace-Transfer platform

Interac e-Transfer, a digital money transfer platform, is the fastest and safest way for Canadians to transfer money directly from one bank account to another. Interac e-Transfer andInterac e-Transfer Bulk Disbursement are relied upon to send and receive money securely, conveniently and efficiently via person-to-person (P2P), person-to-business (P2B), business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-person (B2P) transactions. Consumers and businesses use it daily for a wide range of needs, including paying rent, paying an employee, splitting a bill or reimbursing a friend.

Users can access the platform through a participating financial institution's online or mobile banking application to send money to anyone with an email address or mobile phone number and a bank account in Canada – without requiring any personal financial information. Transferred funds remain secure with financial institutions, which settle with each other through Payments Canada on advice from Interac. More than 250 financial institutions offer access to the Interace-Transfer service.

The Interac e-Transfer platform offers state-of-the art, scalable technology and provides unique capabilities, such as 24/7/365 availability, real-time payment notifications, analytics, and reporting. All users are protected with multiple layers of security including encryption technology, financial institution authentication and proprietary risk management making it one of the most secure P2P solutions globally.

About Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation

Together, Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation operate an economical, world-class debit payments system with broad-based acceptance, 24/7/365 reliability, security, and efficiency. The organization is Canada's leading payments brand and is chosen an average of 16 million times daily to pay and exchange money. For more than 30 years, it has facilitated secure financial transactions through the development of innovative and convenient digital debit and money transfer solutions. A leader in the prevention and detection of fraud, the organization has one of the lowest rates of fraud globally. Visit Interac.ca or follow us @Interac.

Interac, the Interac logo and Interac e-Transfer are registered trade-marks of Interac Inc. Used under licence.